The Dragon Quest Series

Dragon Quest laid the foundations of the Japanese RPG. The first game arrived on the Famicom in 1986 and brought together the three names the series still runs on: writer Yuji Horii, artist Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame, and composer Koichi Sugiyama. Next to the computer RPGs of the day it was deliberately simple — one hero, turn-based battles seen from the hero's eyes, one clear job: defeat the Dragonlord. In America the early games shipped as Dragon Warrior, because a tabletop game already owned the Dragon Quest trademark there.

The first three games form a loose trilogy about the bloodline of the hero Erdrick. The original is a one-man expedition, Dragon Quest II added a party of three and a ship, and Dragon Quest III closed the arc with a class system and a twist that retroactively explains the other two. In Japan its launch became a national event, with queues stretching around city blocks.

Later entries differ more than long series usually allow. Dragon Quest IV tells its story in chapters, each following a different character until they finally meet as one party. Dragon Quest V follows its hero from childhood through marriage to his own children, and let you recruit defeated monsters years before Pokémon existed. Dragon Quest VIII then moved the series into full 3D, where Toriyama's art finally looks like a running anime.

What you will find here

An honest note first: none of the Dragon Quest games can be played in the browser here. This hub is a catalogue — game profiles with descriptions, release years and screenshots, from the NES originals to spin-offs like the monster-taming Dragon Warrior Monsters. Use it to sort out what the series actually contains and how the entries differ from each other.